Beta-Animelover 1910

( So another expansive chapter, gave a pretty long chapter this time around and it marks the era of me going over 10,000 words! Woo, and all that other jazz. Everyone that has been following the story, I have to thank you all and hope future readers would enjoy this story. Like always, I would like to at least get a few reviews to see what is good or bad. So I can improve my word for future chapters and PM if you have any idea's, I'm open to suggestions or even chats about stuff ;3. Signing off till the next chapter is written! )

Chapter 5- Gossip+Ninja=Disaster!

It's already been a week since I had left Hinata at her home. No problems had followed from our exchange and I felt like my life was going back to normal. It was going rather smoothly now, only working on the village and coming back to rest under my tree. The very idea had put me at ease and focused on my training with my squad.

It seems that news had spread that the new hokage would be here soon. So all squads were to get back into tiptop shape, which to me was a drag to do. Despite the last week, it was already the weekend and Asuma had called off training today, giving me time to get back to what I really liked to do—watching the clouds from my favorite spot all day, play shoji with anyone that I pleased and take a much needed nap. That was the life I wanted for the rest of my time in this world. Of course I knew that the fun times would be over when I finally decided to settle down with some woman to bear my children.

I breathed in the fresh air of the forest around me. It was such a great feeling to be around nature, under my favorite tree, the shade giving me a much welcomed cool breeze from this very hot day that we were having. Thinking of what to do today, nothing really came to mind because I was already doing what I wanted to do.

Maybe I should walk into the village for a change of pace? It would something different for me to do...honestly I was getting bored today. Sure it was nice to do nothing for a long period of time, but it was just lonesome out here. Sometimes eventful meetings and other wonders that made my life troublesome was much welcomed, despite me telling everyone that hated troublesome people and things that were a drag….they make life interesting.

"What should I do today? Maybe strip down and swim in the nearby river…? That would definitely be something different for me to do," I said openly into the world around me.

"Shikamaru, I never knew that you were such the daredevil? I was impressed that you were talking to yourself and then decided on doing such an act that would be a total Naruto move? " said a very familiar voice.

My eyes had snapped open and turned my head over to Choji, who held a bag of chips in his hand. He was one of my best friends since we were children and I had just said something very stupid without even realizing it. He only smirked down at me for once I had been foolish but he only replied with chewing his chips.

One by one, he crunched on them like a shark feeding on its prey. He rapidly fed himself to the extent that it was like light speed. I only stood up from the grass as I wondered what to say to him. What could make me look like I wasn't stupid? Even if I was pulling a Naruto move out of the hat, but you know what? I'm not that energetic, so this should be really simple.

"Choji, it's good to see you. What brings you to my neck of the woods?" I said with a sly smile on my face.

"I came to check up on you. Since you haven't been around the village lately, always hiding from most people. Plus it's really boring today, maybe we could hang out and do something fun?" he asked with a kind smile.

"Yeah, it's been a long time since we've done something other than train together. Plus I really need to do something rather than sleep all day, it does get boring," I said acknowledging the fact to him.

"Great, come on lets go try out the rebuild Yakiniku Q house!" Choji had yelled excitedly into the air.

I only sighed at his first words, it was expected that he would want that. I only walked alongside him as he marched forward back to the village to get his food. It was fine with me, it only mattered that we were at least going to be doing something together. It wasn't long before we had exited the training field, but I had a sixth sense that someone was watching me from somewhere.

I looked around the area, but I didn't see anyone at all for some time now. Maybe I was just having a bad day? I shrugged and just focused on having a good time today. Yet, I knew that I should never let my guard down...it was only a ploy to see if someone would take the chance to follow me.

When we had reached the village limits, the much welcomed sight of crowds of people had filled my gaze. It put a smile on my face to see that the village was coming back into what it was before the chunin exams. The struggle had destroyed most of the homes, buildings and taken the lives of many of the village citizens. Despite the odds, we had won and were mending the wounds that held us.

I noticed that some of the villagers around us were looking towards me. It was odd that people would start to pay attention to me, it wasn't like I was popular. So I had decided on trying to listen in on some of the conversions, as we walked to the restaurant.

"Look it's that guy everyone is talking about," said one of the girls.

"Really? I expected him to be much cuter to have done that well," said another one of them.

"I know right! He must be a casanova in secret, some girls must have all the luck."

"Well if he doesn't get killed that is. I hear that it is a secret they have to keep it a secret."

"Yeah, or else he will be done in by t…"

"Were almost there," Choji had reminded me, before I could even listen to the last thing she was about to say.

What the hell were people talking about? Could it be that they meant about Hinata? It wasn't like it was true, yet they must be talking about someone else. I could just be imagining the whole conversion out of boredom and it was about some other guy that looked like me. Honestly, me a casanova? That was like saying that Choji was going on a diet.

It wasn't long before we were in front of a BBQ pork joint that Choji loved so much. He had rushed inside with a bright smile on his face, as he took a seat at one of the booths. I slowly followed his lead and sat on the other side of him with a blank expression on my face. The owner had walked over to our table and took the order, and to my amazement Choji didn't order the whole restaurant by now.

The grill was on the table, and when they brought the meat to our table. Choji's mouth was watering at the sight of the sizzling meat in front of him, but it would be bad to eat uncooked meat. So I would need to keep him busy, while the meat cooked itself.

"So Choji, is there anything new happening around the village?" I asked out of curiosity.

Choji had turned his eyes away from his meat and looked towards me.

"Well, I was trying to remember something that I wanted to ask you," he said honestly.

"What is it?"

"I can't really remember, but have you heard the news of the new hokage coming to the village?"

"Yeah, I have heard about it. It's supposed to be one of the legendary sannin of the leaf village."

"Really? That going to definitely put the village back on track, and we don't have to worry about our power."

"Yes, this would mean that other village's can't attack us in our time of weakness anymore."

I turned to the meat and noticed that it was finally done cooking now, so Choji had started to dig into the meat. I did the same, taking my time to eat every last piece before taking a sip of my tea. I was half way done with my portion of meat, when Choji had finished his already, turning to focus on me, as I ate slowly to savor the food. I was close to finishing, when I had heard words start to be formed from Choji's mouth that rocked my world.

"I just remembered now. Shikamaru, are you screwing with Hinata?" he asked out of the blue.

I was shocked at his words, that the piece of pork that I was eating had a very hard time to swallow. Long story short I was starting to choke on the food and smashed my chest a few times before it finally went down. I drank my entire tea to clear my throat and turned to Choji with my mind in the gutter.

"Choji, where the hell did you hear that from?" I asked desperately.

"Most of the village is talking about you, they think of it like another Romeo and Juliet saga." He said calmly to me.

"The whole village! Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

"Because I wanted food first, I couldn't think on an empty stomach!"

"Look, this is very important but where is the source of this info?"

"I heard that Ino and Sakura had spread this around the entire village."

"FUCK!" I yelled throughout the restaurant, while getting many glares my way.

I paused for a moment to think of what to respond to him, yet in my mind, I was already strangling so many people with my shadows, it wasn't even funny. I placed a hand over my face out of all the stress that had just filled my mind. If this was Ino's fault then this was all over the village, so that meant that the Hyuga clan might be after my head? I hoped they didn't fall for that gossip trash….because I didn't feel like dying right now.

There had to be some way to stop this trash, I could only think of a few options. It was either to go on living with the gossip, which meant having a target on my back. The other plan would be to go on a long mission for a large period of time, or take out the source with another gossip that will end my own. Which meant, I would need to go find Ino and I knew just who to ask.

"Choji, do you know where Ino might be going today?" I asked quickly.

"I think she said something about hot springs, as I was passing by her this morning," he said with a confused expression on his face.

"Then I can still catch her and end this gossip, before I get hunted down like some fox," I said, reassuring myself.

Right after I had said those very words, the door to the restaurant had been kicked open by a current hot head I knew. Kiba and his clone had locked eyes with me, and that only meant one thing. I was surely going to have to do a lot of work now, so I got out of my seat with a calm demeanor.

"Let's not do anything crazy Kiba, I know what you might have heard but it's all a lie!" I tried to reason with him.

It was then that he had hand signed and spoke his signature words for his attack.

"Fang passing Fang!" He yelled without even responding to my plead, his body turning into a cyclone that wanted to shred me to pieces.

Why was this only happening to me?

…

Hinata Pov

A week had gone by since I had came back home. My mind had gone back to other things, other than Shikamaru helping me. I wanted to repay him one of these days, but my father had kept a watch on me. During the week I had worked with Miss. Kurenai to improve my stance and had gotten better. Then I hang out with Kiba and Shino after training, it was so much fun to be with them. They always treated me like family, and I didn't know where I would be without them. We all had finished up the week with good marks and waited for the arrival of the new hokage.

The news had been good for once and now it would be only a matter of time. The village would finally become like it once was, maybe even better than before. It was the future after all, but now was the present. Today, I would do something that I wanted to do. So the idea of training all day had come into my mind.

Yet, I knew that I was always training. So maybe I should try to do something different? I should go have some fun? Deciding that maybe it would be the best course of action, so I had left the compound with the intentions of getting some help. My only friend that was a girl that I spoke to on a regular basis, TenTen should be able to help me.

Taking a nice walk over to her home, I tried to see if she was outside practicing with her weapons, which to my luck she was, twirling around her scroll and hitting the targets with perfect aim. She was starting to slow down when she saw me approaching from the road. She smiled at me, while I walked over to her.

"How have you been Tenten?" I asked timidly.

"I've been great! Have you heard the news of the new hokage?" She said excitedly.

I only nodded to her.

"Yes, it is one of the legendary Sannin of the leaf."

"Yup, Tsunade is my hero! I can't wait for her to get here and I can ask to learn from her," she raved on about.

"That's great Tenten," I said supporting her idea.

"So Hinata, what brings you out to my side of town?"

"Well...I wanted to know if we could hang out today."

Tenten had paused for a moment to think about something, I didn't know what. Yet, it had looked important before she snapped out of her thinking.

"I'm free today, and I just have the perfect place for us to hang out."

"Really?"

"Totally, we are going to have a relaxing day at the hot spring. Is that alright with you?"

I nodded my head to Tenten and she only clapped excitedly, getting something from her home. Then we were off into the village, taking our time to pass through the crowded streets. I noticed that some guys were staring at me, it was starting to worry me. It wasn't like they haven't done it before but they soon started to speak in a group. I could only hear some of the words they had said, but it wasn't ones that I liked.

"Hey, have you heard that she is getting down with someone," asked one of the guys.

"Really, the little angel? Man that guy must be so lucky," said another one of them.

"Whatever, if she could be with me for a night, I would change her world around to me," he said coolly.

"Says the guy that can't even get a date." They laughed at the comment.

"Shut up, at least that's better than dealing with her family."

I wanted to hear more, but Tenten had pulled me away towards the hot springs. It seemed to be filled with many girls already, which meant that men were trying to sneak a peek. Of course they patrol around to stop anyone from doing so, along with the wrath of many angry women. Not many men would want to suffer through that at all.

We had walked through the doors of the springs and paid the money to the lady that owned the hot springs. She told us to go through the door, and we could feel the warm fumes from the hot water. I only sighed in relief of finally taking a break from all my training. We had entered the room to put away our stuff and started to strip down.

I was a little conscious of my assets, always trying to hide them from the public. It was alright to be around other girls but even then, they tend to judge who were better. I never understood such things but Tenten had stared at me with a frown on her face, looking down at herself. Compared to mine, hers were smaller which seems to put her on edge.

"Hinata, you have all the luck," she said with a frown.

"What do you mean by that, Tenten?" I asked innocently.

"It's nothing, I am just thinking about something else. Let's get into that water," she said, trying to change the topic.

She turned away and we got our towel to wrap around our bodies. Opening the door into the hot spring, we were met with many other girls already in the water. A few turned to me, and started to speak softly about something in secret. It was like the guys outside, what was going on?

I entered the water and felt my body relax from the heated body of water. I loved the feeling and started to branch away from the other girls talking. They only went back to relaxing and I stopped along an edge with Tenten following right behind. She only plunged into the water, before coming back up with a splash.

Tenten's long hair was flowing down her back because of the water, but it was really beautiful. Yet, she always placed them in a bun for some reason.

"Tenten, why do you always hide your long hair?"

"It's not that I want to hide it, it's just long hair slows me down. I like to fight, not have my hair get in my face in the middle of a fight. So I put them in buns, but I do show my hair. I get a few heads to turn my way, if you know what I mean." She winked at me.

I didn't understand what she meant by that, but I simply nodded to her like I knew. She swam closer to me and looked at me with a curious expression on her face.

"Hey Hinata, can I ask you something between the both of us?" she asked out of nowhere.

I was surprised by her forward interest about something.

"Sure."

"So how long have you been having intercourse with Shikamaru Nara?" she said rather quickly.

My cheeks had instantly turned a shade of red from her words, did she really meant those words? Everyone else was talking about me, because they think I was with Shikamaru? This couldn't be right, maybe they didn't know the truth.

"It's alright Hinata, if you felt a feeling and decided to go on it. It's only natural for a girl to grow into a woman, yo—

"No, Tenten….I didn't do anything of the sort. I couldn't have, I'm not that type of girl," I stopped her mid sentence that surprised me.

"So, you're not doing anything with Shikamaru? So how does the whole village know about it?" she asked confusedly.

"The whole village!" I said loudly at the unbelievable outcome.

My face had stayed the dark red color at this news, what was I going to do?

"Hinata!, you're here! Isn't that a sign of good luck?" yelled a voice from the other side of the hot spring.

Ino had come over to the both of us with a smile on her face, her blonde flowing hair. She seemed really happy. I turned towards her as she looked down at my body. She frowned for a moment before she put on a smile again, which I thought was really strange. Why was me being here good luck?

"Ino, it's a surprise to see you here," I said timidly, my blush going down.

"I know right? Anyways, it seems you are doing fine. I expected that you would be hiding out in your compound, when I spread the news," she said openly.

"Spread the news?" I asked.

"Yes, that you had walked out of Shikamaru's house and brought you home in the morning. I really didn't think you had it in you."

"You were the one that told the whole village that me and Shikamaru were an item!?" Another surprise that I had gotten a little irritated, maybe a lot more than I ever had.

"You don't have to be so offensive about it. I always thought that you were the nice type of girl. Of course those are the types that want to be the bad guy…oh poor Shikamaru. Must have been the victim of a one night stand, the poor guy," she said with a smirk on her face.

I felt an emotion boil inside of me at her words. One, I wouldn't do that. Two, I would treat Shikamaru better than what she said, and thirdly I really wanted to slap the hell out of her.

"Plus, Shikamaru isn't that great of a guy anyway. He really is lazy and don't...WHACK."

I couldn't hold back anymore, my hand had extended out like it had a mind of its own, slapping the Ino across the face with enough force that everyone in the hot springs had turned to look at us. Ino had a red mark on her cheek from my hand and I was looking at my hand. I have never laid a hand on anyone before, but she needed that.

Tenten was stunned at what had just occurred and just stood back idly. I felt confident for once in my life and it was all thanks to ino.

"Ino, you're his teammate and you can't see that he is a good guy. He cares for people, helps his friends and is smarter than what you think of him!" I said confidently as I was on a roll.

Ino only looked at me with disgust, as she felt like she would fight back. Yet, she would only back away from me but she stared at me.

"It seems you do like a certain teammate of my, how cute. I can't wait to spread this little gossip around the village, of course everyone here already knows the truth. It's really too bad, but I'll make sure to get you back," she said like she had won this battle.

I only tensed at her words, yet I had already hit her. Tenten also had grabbed my arm to tell me to back down and I listened to her. Ino wasn't worth it because she always played low ball with most people.

"Hinata, it's alright. She will get what she deserves, you will see," she said smoothly to me.

"Oh, you think you're any better Tenten? Let me tell you…." Ino was trying to say, but stopped at the sound of a crash from above.

I stopped listening to her, when someone had crashed through the roof of the hot springs. Ironically landing on top of Ino as everyone in the water, had screamed at the top of their lungs. Running away towards the exit, while me and Tenten looked at the Ino to see if she was alright—we weren't that heartless.

"Got what you deserve, Bitch!" Tenten had yelled to a knocked out Ino.

After a few seconds, the figure that had fallen through had stood up from the hot water. Looking around the springs, until he caught eyes with me. Then his nose had started to bleed for some unknown reason, until I noticed that I had dropped my towel. Shikamaru had turned away from me with a bright blush on his face, which was not only from getting plunged into the hot water.

I pulled the towel over me, while blushing darkly because of his reaction. I looked at him, but I noticed that he had fainted a moment later falling back into the water. What is wrong with this day!